This little incident sent Josie's mood plummeting to rock bottom.
Seeing that Lucas Lockwood and his group were heading for the survivor camp, she knew it was time for her to leave!
"Wait..." Lucas Lockwood suddenly raised a hand, signaling for the group to halt.
Just as she was about to leave, Josie heard him say, "That group from before came from that direction. We're changing our route."
She immediately halted her transformation.
'Perfect!'
'I can keep using this "power bank" for a while longer.'
As long as they didn't go to the survivor camp, she could keep following him and leveling up her ability.
"Okay, Lucas, we'll listen to you."
As a big shot on campus, Lucas Lockwood had been the core of the team both before and after the apocalypse.
The other students never questioned his decisions.
"That group from before looked like trouble."
"This is the apocalypse... From now on, we'll probably have to hide from anyone we run into."
A silence fell over the group at his words.
It was true. The apocalypse was here, and resources were growing scarcer.
For the sake of survival, conflict and opposition between people were inevitable.
But they didn't have much time for sentiment. They were soon caught off guard by an endless stream of zombies.
The guys protected the girls in the center, helping each other push forward.
As night fell, the exhausted team finally found an abandoned gas station.
The guys cautiously checked every corner, only letting the girls inside after confirming it was safe.
Lucas Lockwood stood at the entrance and said to everyone, "We'll rest here tonight. Everyone get some sleep. We leave early tomorrow."
Everyone was so tired they just leaned against the walls, unwilling to move. After a hasty meal, they curled up on the floor and fell asleep.
Lucas stood alone outside the door. He condensed crystalline icicles on his fingertips, then melted them into water in his palms to wash up.
Once he was clean, he stared blankly into the distance.
His parents had already been picked up by his older brother. Having missed the rescue, he could only rely on himself to get out of this area.
But he had no idea where to find his parents and brother.
His fingers unconsciously slipped into his pocket, only to touch something foreign.
By the moonlight, he pinched out a slip of paper. His expression changed slightly.
"It's you?"
He clearly remembered that his pocket was supposed to be empty.
The slip of paper suddenly vanished from between his fingers, and Josie's figure gradually materialized in the moonlight.
"Sorry about that. I was too scared to be alone, so I followed you like this."
Lucas Lockwood frowned, but seeing the deliberately frail appearance Josie was putting on, he couldn't bring himself to scold her.
"That man from earlier today was looking for you, right?"
"Mhm, you heard everything."
"If he's your boyfriend, you should go with him. The world outside is more dangerous than you think."
It was rare for Lucas to offer such a warning.
The mention of Landon Hughes soured Josie's mood, but she didn't want to show it. She just chuckled and said, "Ex-boyfriend. He and his childhood sweetheart nearly got me killed, so... he was fired."
Lucas hadn't expected such a dramatic backstory. His brow furrowed, but he said nothing more.
He turned to walk toward the nearby woods.
Josie turned and followed him.
He stopped short and glanced at her, a note of exasperation in his voice. "I'm going to relieve myself."
Josie coughed lightly. "Alright then. I'll keep watch for you here."
Lucas just stopped walking altogether. "Is there something else you need?"
"Mhm. Do you guys have a destination? If not, you could go to the nearby safe zone."
'If they're going to a safe zone, I can follow him the whole way and use him to recharge.'
"A safe zone?" It was clearly the first time Lucas had heard of it. His expression turned serious. "A place controlled by the government?"
"Mhm, you could say that. If you want to go to the safe zone, I can show you the way."
Lucas studied the strikingly beautiful girl before him. Her ability was unusual, and she also knew about the existence of a safe zone.
"The apocalypse only started three months ago. How do you know about a safe zone? Have you been there?"
Of course Josie had been there, but that was in her past life.
Landon Hughes and his group hadn't wanted to be tied down, so they'd drifted between several safe zones but never stayed long in any of them.
"I heard about it from someone, but it really exists. If you and these college students want to survive, your only option is a safe zone. Otherwise, with society in ruins, even if you don't die in the jaws of a zombie, you'll die at the hands of your own kind."
Josie's words cast a grave expression over Lucas's handsome, clean-cut face.
"Thank you for telling me this. How far is the nearest safe zone from here?"
"Pretty far," Josie shifted her feet slightly, smiling at him. "On foot, it would probably take a month. But I know a shortcut that can cut the travel time by a third."
Just as Lucas was about to ask another question, the sound of footsteps from behind interrupted their conversation.
"Lucas, so this is where you were."
Lucas turned to answer, but when he turned back, Josie had vanished without a trace.
He instinctively checked all his pockets. They were empty.
Back inside the gas station, there was no sign of her.
Before he went to sleep, he checked his pockets one more time.
"Are you there?" he asked in a low voice.
The student next to him looked up in confusion. "Lucas, were you calling me?"
"Ahem... No."
Lucas had no choice but to fall silent and close his eyes to rest.
Josie, transformed into a rock in the corner, had to stifle a laugh.
'If I want to stay here, I have to prove my worth.'
'At least, until I decide to leave on my own, I won't tell them the exact location of the safe zone. I'll have to be the one to lead them there.'
After waiting for a long time with no result, Lucas, who hadn't slept for forty hours straight, finally relaxed. He dozed off and was dead to the world.
The exhausted group lay sprawled all over the room, and soon, only the sound of even breathing remained.
In the middle of the night, Lucas felt something warm and soft in his sleep.
His hand unconsciously closed around it, and the unfamiliar sensation jolted him awake.
He couldn't make out the face of the person beside him in the darkness, but the faint, sweet scent was all too familiar.
It was Josie!
"Wake up!"
He quickly pulled his hand back and tried to wake her.
Josie, still half-asleep and groggy, subconsciously nuzzled into his chest, her warm lips pressing against his thin undershirt.
Everywhere her lips touched, it felt like an electric shock to Lucas.
His whole body went rigid. He wanted to put some distance between them, but the girl was lying on his clothes, making it impossible to move away.
Mindful of his sleeping companions, he could only press his lips together and gently shake the girl in his arms.
Josie's eyes finally fluttered open, still half in a dream. "So sleepy... what is it?"
"You're lying on my clothes." His voice seemed to be suppressing some kind of emotion.
Only then did Josie realize she was sprawled on top of him. He had already tried to pull back, but with his clothes pinned under her, they were still stuck in an intimate position.
That woke Josie up completely.
She remembered that she'd found her rock form uncomfortable and had changed back into a human in the middle of the night.
'I can't believe I got this close to him.'
"Sorry, I was out of it." She yawned and instantly turned into a rock.
"Come outside with me for a second."
The team member on watch vaguely heard a noise and thought he saw Lucas talking to someone when he turned his head.
But in the blink of an eye, there was no one there.
He rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them again.
'Were my eyes playing tricks on me, or was I seeing ghosts?'